I thought I would add cheer to an already enjoyable weekend by reviewing some recent national hospice data. Here are some nuggets:
- Patients on hospice lived an average of 28 days longer than patients with similar diagnoses who were not on hospice.
- Hospice service saved an average of $2,309.00 per patient in 2008.
- The cost savings data indicated that the longer patients stay on hospice the more money is saved (probably resulting from hospitalization preventions).
- 75.4% of families reported excellent care.
- 38.5% of U.S. deaths were served by hospice.
- Hospice use is higher when the disease poses a significant burden on the family.
- Cancer was the most common diagnosis, at 38%.
After I read these and other facts from the NHPCO Facts and Figures 2009 edition, I was encouraged. And who wouldn’t be. Those of us who participate in hospice derive a lot meaning from it.
It is, I think, difficult to make sense of hospice care apart from a belief that human life is particularly valuable. We are made in God’s image, according to the holy scriptures. That means we don’t derive value from our appearance, skill set, or productivity.
Our value is God-given, which is a characteristic about us seen by our country’s fathers . They wrote that we have inalienable (can’t be removed) rights. I write and speak often that this transcendence underpinns everything we do.
We can look at every patient on the Texas Hospice service and know that the respect due to them is no less than what we should give the country’s president. They are all loved by the Creator who became one of us, and their infinitely valuable lives, unlike any other on the planet, are eternal.
